


something unforgettable

by justmyrthe



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Carlos Sainz Jr is Whipped, Carlos Sainz Jr is an oblivious piece of shit, Childhood Friends, Dorks in Love, Everyone Is Gay, F2 Boyband, Friends to Lovers, Gay George Russell, Gay Lando Norris, Holiday Friends, Kissing, Lando Norris is Whipped, Love Confessions, M/M, Mutual Pining, POV Lando, Pansexual Alexander Albon, Strangers to Lovers, it technically is strangers to friends to lovers but according to archive that isn't a tag, they are both so whipped oh my god
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:15:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26987329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justmyrthe/pseuds/justmyrthe
Summary: “Let me be, he was my gay awakening!” Silence. Complete, utter silence. Lando frowns. Did he say something wrong? But Alex and George are also frowning. Then Alex breaks the silence.“How the hell was Carlos your gay awakening when you only met him this August?”12-year-old Lando meets 17-year-old Carlos on a camping site in Spain and gets a slight-but-maybe-not-so-slight crush on him. Six years later, they meet again and everything happens all over again.
Relationships: Alexander Albon & Lando Norris & George Russell, Lando Norris/Carlos Sainz Jr
Comments: 8
Kudos: 97





	something unforgettable

**Author's Note:**

> honestly... i don't really know how i produced a 12k words fic but i did i guess?? i started this all the way in january because i was missing formula 1 and finally finished it last week! i'm actually pretty proud of this being my longest fic yet,, even though it took me quite a while. my relationship with this fic went like love-hate-love-hatehatehate-love-hate and at some point i didn't even plan on finishing it, but here we are i guess, finished and everything. 
> 
> have fun reading!

**JULY 2012**

“I’m going to walk around a bit and explore the camping!” Lando shouts before walking out of the door of their little vacation bungalow and plugging in his earbuds.

“Lando, wait!” His mother walks out of the door, just as he is putting his second earbud into his ear. “Yeah?” He turns around and faces his mother.

“We are going to eat outdoors, so be back at 6 pm, okay?” Lando nods and finally puts his second earbud in his ear. Then he walks down the path to the main road of the camping, which is nothing more than a path a little bit wider than the others and it’s made of asphalt and not of sand and gravel, like the others. Instead of taking the way to the reception and the swimming pool, he takes the exact opposite way.

As he’s walking down the path, he notices it becomes more and more quiet and at some point, the asphalt road stops and continues as a sand path. Lando sighs. The sand sticks on his feet and in his flip flops, so his feet will be dirty when he comes back and he will have to wash his feet before they go out. He hears some water rippling and starts walking a little bit faster. His mother didn’t tell him there was a river close by. The trees open up a bit and form an open spot. At the other end, a little brook flows by.

He walks to the brook and sits down on the rocks next to it. It’s really calm here and he enjoys it. The silence, just him, his music and the brook. He focuses on the music and the flowing water for a little bit, until he hears something behind him. He turns around and sees a boy walking down the path he walked down as well. The boy looks Spanish and Lando hopes he doesn’t try talking to him, because his Spanish isn’t really good. He knows like ten words or something, so he won’t be able to have a conversation with him.

“¡Hola! ¿Qué estás haciendo aquí?” (“Hello! What are you doing here?”) Oh. There it starts already. The boy talks so fast, Lando couldn’t even catch the words he said, but still pulls one of his earbuds out of his ear.

“¿Qué?” (“What?”) he asks, hoping the boy doesn’t think a simple ‘what’ is impolite and repeats the question, but slower. “¿Qué estás haciendo aquí?” (“What are you doing here?”) Lando sighs. He only understands the word “qué”, which means what, but that doesn’t explain the sentence for him.

“Je ne parle pas français”, (“I don’t speak French”) he blurts out and internally facepalms. French? Seriously, Lando?

“I guess you don’t speak Spanish either. You do speak English?”, the boy asks. “Yes, I do speak English.” Lando smiles. “You’re British!” the boy concludes, after hearing his accent.

“Yes, I am. You’re Spanish, I guess? Your English is good!” The boy blushes and nods. “My name is Carlos. What’s yours?” “Lando.” Carlos sits down next to Lando.

“Is it okay if I take one of your earbuds?” Lando nods and the boy pulls the earbud in Lando hand in his own, before putting it into his own ear. “What are you listening to?”

Lando shows him his iPod and Carlos clicks through his playlist. There’s nothing embarrassing about the songs he listens, they’re all top 50 songs or former top 50 songs, except for his sister’s One Direction playlist he sometimes listens to too. “Hmm, good music taste”, Carlos concludes.

“Hey, Lando, how old are you?” Lando smiles. “Nearly 13.” Carlos nods and Lando examines his face. How old would he be? Probably older than his brother Oliver, maybe even older than his cousin who turned 17 last month. “So your birthday is in August?” Lando frowns. What makes him think that?

“No? My birthday is in November. The 13th.” Carlos shakes his head. “Then you’re not nearly 13. I am nearly 18, you know, but your birthday isn’t in another 4 months.” Lando rolls his eyes.

“Then I assume your birthday is in August?” “Nope.” “Then you’re not nearly 18! You just said it yourself!” Carlos smiles. “My birthday is September first. That’s nearly 18, don’t you think?” Lando nods and replaces his gaze to the brook.

“It’s really calm here. I like that.” He can feel Carlos’ gaze burning on him. “You like silence, calmness, quietness? How come?” Lando shrugs. “I live in a big city, so it’s never really silent there.” “I get that.” The two boys fall silent and both watch the brook flowing by, listening to its soothing sound.

After quite some time, Lando realises it’s probably nearly time for him to go, so he checks the time. He was right. It’s a quarter to 6 and it’s a 10-minute walk. “I have to go”, he tells the older Spaniard while standing up. “I have to be back at 6.” Carlos nods and stands up too.

“I’ll see you tomorrow?” It sounds more like a question than a statement, but Carlos nods. “Bye, Lando.” Lando waves before starting to follow the path back to his vacation bungalow.

The next day, Carlos is already at their place when Lando arrives. “¡Hola!” (“Hello!”) he says, hoping Carlos doesn’t recognize him immediately. “Hello Lando!” the older shouts back.

“How did you know it was me?” Lando says while sitting down next to Carlos. “You’re not good at hiding your British accent”, Carlos smiles. “Plus, you’re the only one I’ve ever seen here, and I have been coming here for the past three weeks every day, so the chances are very low people have found it in two days.” Lando nods.

“You’ve been here for the past three weeks? Do you live here or something?” Carlos chuckles and shakes his head. “I live in Madrid”, he says. “What’s Madrid like? I’ve never been to Madrid. Is it like Barcelona? Or more like Sevilla? Or… how is it?” Carlos chuckles again.

“Eager to know? Well, firstly, you must know it is nothing like Barcelona. Barcelona’s football team is way worse than Madrid’s football teams, especially Real. But… I think you can compare it to London, but in Spain, so they speak Spanish instead of English.” Lando nods.

“And why are you here for so long?” “My parents… they want silence in the summer break. So we spend like six weeks here and I have to entertain myself. I like it here, but after some weeks, I’ve gotten used to the surroundings, so then I get bored.” Lando nods and takes his iPod out of his pocket.

“You want to listen to some music?” Carlos nods and takes the iPod from Lando and scrolls through the playlist. Lando isn’t even paying attention anymore and dozes off a little, so when Carlos suddenly pokes a finger in his arm, he awakens again.

“What’s this?” Carlos points on the One Direction playlist. Lando blushes and takes his iPod back. “That’s my sister’s playlist.” Carlos grins.

“Why are you blushing, then? You act like I caught you doing something weird.” That makes Lando blush even more and his lips form a pout. “It really is my sister’s playlist! I haven’t said anything about listening to it, but it is my sister’s!” Carlos rolls his eyes and bumps softly into Lando.

“So, you do listen to it?” Lando lowers his gaze. “Yes.” Carlos tries to look him in the eyes, but Lando has his head turned to the ground, so he places his hand under Lando’s chin and pushes the younger’s head up, so he can look him in the eyes.

“Hey, your music choice is nothing to be embarrassed about, even though some people might think it’s childish or girly. To be honest, some of their songs are pretty great, so what about listening to them?” Lando’s face cracks into a smile and he puts on his (sister’s, well, from now on it’s his) One Direction playlist. As they are sitting down next to the brook, Lando starts leaning his head against Carlos’ chest little by little. “Is this okay?” he asks softly. Carlos nods and Lando lays his head completely on Carlos’ chest.

“Lando.” He hears someone calling his name. “Lando. Wake up.” Who is that? And whose chest is he leaning against? The body feels soft but muscular and the person smells nice too. “Lando!” He finally opens his eyes and looks right into Carlos’.

“God, your awake. It’s nearly 6, maybe you should go back before your parents start to worry.” Lando’s eyes widen. Nearly 6? “Did I fall asleep?” Carlos nods.

“I did too. The playlist ended a long time ago, so I guess we both slept in because of the silence.” Lando nods and stands up. “I’m going to head back, okay?” Carlos nods and smiles. “I guess I see you tomorrow or later this week again?” “I guess so.”

Lando wakes up in the middle of the night, bathing in sweat and… oh god, is this what a boner feels like? He’s lying on his belly and his dick presses into the mattress, but it’s harder than normal… yes, probably a boner. He turns around slowly, so he lays on his back, and he has to contain himself from letting out a whine at the loss of friction. His brother will probably wake up because of the noise and then he has a problem.

How did he suddenly get a boner? They don’t pop up randomly, do they? Was he dreaming about something, or someone? He tries to recall his dream, but when he finally remembers what it was about, he can feel his cheeks burn. Carlos. Does that mean… he’s gay? Bi? Any of those other sexualities? Does he really like Carlos or is he just looking up to him?

Lando knows the answer to the last question, but still thinks it’s scary. Trying to admit to yourself that you like someone with the same gender. Deep inside, he already knew it, but now he has physical proof. How will his parents react? His siblings? The rest of his family? Maybe even more important, will he still be able to chase his dream of becoming a motorsport driver? It scares him. People aren’t that homophobic as years ago, but still… being queer isn’t one of the most usual things.

He works himself up on his elbows, so he’s sitting up straight on his bed. The most important question right now is, how does the boner go away? Isn’t there a way… of course, he knows jerking off is a really good option, but doing that, while sleeping in the same room as your brother, who will see what you’re doing in three seconds? Then he suddenly remembers something about taking a cold shower. Wasn’t that also a way to reduce a boner?

He decides to give it a shot, but not in their bungalow. He’s lucky there’s a toilet building close by. His mother left the key on the table, so he takes it, unlocks the door, walks through it and closes it again, but not before taking a towel from the bathroom. It’s really dark outside and Lando thinks it’s a bit scary, but he shouldn’t worry about that too much. It’s a camping and if they slept in a tent, he would have to go out to go to the toilet at night.

He sees some mosquitos flying around a lamppost and shudders. He would like to not get stung by them on the second-last night before going home, after nearly two weeks of not getting stung. The light’s on at the toilet building, so he lets out a sigh of relief. At least he doesn’t have to shower in the dark.

He opens the door of the nearest shower, dumps his towel on the bench and starts taking off his clothes. The moment he wants to take off his flipflops, he looks at the ground and decides it is smarter to just keep them on, because the floor is really dirty. He lays his clothes on the other side of the bench, so he can just grab his towel after showering.

He whines when he takes his boxer short off, his hard-on finally not being suppressed anymore. He has to refrain himself from touching himself, experience what it feels like, but turns the shower on quickly, so he doesn’t think about it anymore. He hisses and nearly jumps away when the cold water touches his body.

Only when he’s finally showering and the cold water doesn’t really affect him anymore, he realises his heartbeat had been really high. Now when it’s slowing down little by little, his boner also reduces. He takes a deep breath and decides it’s been enough. His dick is finally back to normal and he will catch a cold if he stays here for any longer.

After he dries himself, he puts his pyjama back on and walks back to their bungalow, hoping no one noticed he was gone. The door creaks a little when he opens it, but nothing too much, so he leaves the key on the tables and goes back to bed.

Only when he lays in bed, he completely realises what he has been doing. He got a boner and fixed it. How old are the most people when they get their first boner? Older, right? Lando knows he’s normally late with this kind of stuff, not having pubes yet, but still having his first boner at the age of 12? That’s kind of weird, but he doesn’t worry about it too much. He couldn’t do anything about it, could he?

The next morning, he wakes up late, still not completely recovered from his nightly walk. His brother wakes him up, by the message “breakfast, Lando” and Lando has to get out of his bed quickly, not used to waking up late. “Good morning, Lando”, his mother smiles when he sits down. “Morning, mum.” He isn’t really awake yet. He eats his breakfast, but isn’t really paying attention to what his siblings and parents are talking about. 

“The last day today, kids. What are you going to do today?” his father asks, first looking at Oliver before replacing his gaze onto him. “I’m going to make some pictures of the surroundings here”, Lando says. He already made the excuse up yesterday, to not get questions why he’s taking his camera outside. The real reason is that he wants to take a picture with Carlos, for memories. And maybe to crush on him for a little while, like some sort of celebrity crush.

After breakfast, he changes into his normal clothes. That’s when his brother decides to approach him about his nightly walk. “Lando? Why were you gone tonight?” Lando looks up into his brother’s face, trying to see his intentions. The only thing he sees is curiosity and… a little bit concern. “Nothing to worry about, Oli”, he answers, while pulling his shoes from under his bed.

“Lan, why were you gone? I promise not to tell anyone, if you tell me why you were gone.” Now Lando’s in doubt. Will his brother tell his parents if he doesn’t tell him? Better safe than sorry, he decides to tell it. “I had… a little problem”, he says, hoping his brother picks up the hint. “A little problem… as in?” Oliver nods in the direction of his crotch and Lando blushes. “Yes”, he whispers.

“So… you went outside to jerk off?” “What? No!” Lando stares at his brother in disbelief. “You can tell me, Lando, I’m really proud of you.” Lando rolls his eyes. “No, I didn’t jerk off. I went to the toilet building and took a cold shower, okay?” His brother nods. “You’ve finally grown up. Little Lando is finally a man!” Lando bumps into his brother and walks out of their bedroom.

“Hi Carlos!” The latter looks up when he hears his name called by the younger. “Hey, Lando!” Lando sits down next to him and shows him his camera. “I wanted to take a picture together”, he explains. Carlos nods. “I don’t know if you realised it, but I’m leaving tomorrow.” Lando is surprised by how smooth everything comes out of his mouth. Normally, people are awkward when they are talking to their crush, but for some reason, he isn’t. He’s glad, it would be weird if he suddenly was stuttering while talking to Carlos.

“Oh no, you’re leaving me? Am I not good enough?” Carlos says dramatically and Lando laughs. “I’m sorry, but my parents leave and otherwise I won’t get home”, he says while putting his arms around Carlos, starting to hug the older.

“You’re too big”, he pouts when his arms don’t even reach his other shoulder. “You’re just too small”, Carlos teases him, leaving him another pout from Lando. He rolls with his eyes and takes the camera out of its case.

“What do you think, Carlos? Do you want to hold it or should we place it somewhere?” Carlos takes the camera and places it on a rock a few metres away from them. “There is self-timer on it, right?” Lando nods and stands up, helping Carlos with setting up the camera. Then they sit down at their original place and smile. Lando smiles when he sees the photo.

“It turned out good”, he tells Carlos and shows him. The older nods. “Maybe we can take another picture, when you hold the camera?” Lando suggests, only so he has a closer picture of Carlos’ face. Carlos nods, takes the camera and wraps his arm around Lando. “This does fit”, he teases. Lando snorts softly and smiles to the camera.

“Don’t drop it”, he warns Carlos once again. “I won’t, don’t worry.” Carlos presses the button and turns the camera around to look at the photo. “Cute”, he comments and Lando blushes. He quickly crouches to pick up the camera’s case, which is laying on the ground, hoping Carlos doesn’t notice his red cheeks. Lando sighs when they sit down again.

“I’m going to miss you”, he mumbles, but Carlos heard him. “I think I’m going to miss you too, Lando. I really enjoyed your presence.” Lando nods and presses his face into Carlos’ body. “You’re awesome.” Carlos laughs softly.

“Thank you. I think you’re pretty awesome yourself too.” Lando moves his nose a little, still pressed into Carlos’ chest. “You know what’s weird? We have seen each other every day in the past two weeks, but after today, we will never see each other again”, Lando says after he removed his head from Carlos’ body. “Yeah, I know. But that’s how it works, isn’t it?”

They are on their way to the airport and Lando is clicking through the pictures he made during their holiday. He smiles softly when he sees the pictures of him and Carlos together and then looks outside. He was right. They will never see each other again. He doesn’t know anything about Carlos, not even his last name! He only knows he lives in Madrid, but there probably live loads of people called Carlos in Madrid.

“Mum, is it okay if I print the photos from this holiday?” His mother turns around in the front seat to face him. “Of course, Lando! Are you sure you don’t want me to do it?” Lando shakes his head. He doesn’t want anyone to see the pictures of Carlos and him, as some sort of secret. His siblings will probably think it’s weird, having a way older friend (and crush) and his parents will probably be mad, because he never told them about Carlos and where he has been going, so he figured he would do it himself.

He takes another look at the photos with Carlos and then shuts the camera off, before putting it into its case carefully. He sighs. He hopes he won’t miss Carlos for too long, seeing he will never see him again.

**AUGUST 2018**

As always, Lando is struggling again with opening the gate to the McLaren Technology Centre. He’s currently leaning over the passenger seat, trying to reach the button to open the window. He lets out a sign of relief when he finally presses the button. The window opens and Lando gets back to his own seat, not really thinking about how to do that smartly, so the gear stick punches in his belly.

“Ouch”, he whines. He grabs his access card and leans over to the other side again, this time having to even reach further. He decides to just climb to the other seat, hoping the gate closes not too fast, so he has time to climb back. While he is climbing over the middle part of his car, he suddenly hears a voice.

“What the hell are you doing?” Lando looks up and at the other side of the window, there’s a man watching him. An awfully familiar one. “Trying to open the gate”, he says, while continuing climbing. What should he know the man from?

“Give me your card”, the man says. Lando frowns. Is the guy trying to get in? “So I can open the gate for you, and you can drive in.” Lando nods and gives the man his card. Then he climbs back to the driver seat. “There you are”, the man says while giving Lando back his card, but Lando still doesn’t know why he knows the man.

“Why do you even have a French car? That’s just… not useful.” Lando nods. “I know, I really should get another car. Well, thank you for your help!” He closes the window and drives to the parking lot.

Then he finally realises why the man was familiar. He looked a lot like… Carlos. That guy, he met all those years ago in Spain. His… sort of gay awakening. Does he work here? He has never seen him before, and he went here quite a lot this year. But there work so many people, he can’t possibly have seen everyone.

He doesn’t know if the guy really was Carlos, and if he was, he probably wouldn’t know him anymore, so Lando doesn’t worry about it too much. He only hopes the guy doesn’t work here, because he was exactly his type and he doesn’t want to deal with a crush just before the start of his first season in Formula 1.

He walks into the room where he would meet some people (and his new teammate!) and immediately sees that Carlos-lookalike. Fuck. He really works here, doesn’t he? Before he can think about it too much, Zak approaches him.

“And there we have our rookie, Lando! Carlos, this is Lando Norris, Lando, this is Carlos Sainz Jr., you may have seen each other a few times in the paddock, seeing you both walk around there.” Lando has to contain his eyes from widening. The guy’s name is really Carlos? Coincidence or not?

“And he has a French car. Seriously, Lando, why do you have a French car? And it’s a Renault. Team betrayal to the max.” Lando rolls his eyes. “McLaren is powered by Renault engines”, he fires back. “So, it isn’t really. What about your car, huh?” Carlos smiles.

“I have a Renault too, but-” Lando doesn’t let him finish his sentence. “What, for me it’s team betrayal, but for you it isn’t? Now that’s hypocritical!” “I am driving for Renault this season.” As if there has dropped a bomb, the room falls silent. “Ooh”, a few engineers exclaim.

Lando’s cheeks redden. Why did he think again it wasn’t necessary to check who his future teammate was be and what he did this year? Zak clears his throat. “Okay boys, that’s enough, I think we can start.”

When he gets home, the immediately gets to his room, trying to execute the plan he made on his way home. He opens the drawer where his old stuff should be in and starts to remove everything. He’s looking for the pictures he and Carlos made the day before he went home. It was one of the first things he places in the drawer, so it should be on the bottom, but when he has removed everything, the bottom of the drawer is empty. There’s nothing.

He sighs and starts putting everything back. Maybe the pictures got together with the others from that holiday, so he decides to ask his mother about it. “Mum?” He walks into the kitchen, where his mother is probably cooking dinner. “Yes, dear? How was today? How was your new teammate?” Lando smiles.

“I’ll tell you during dinner, I promise, but I’m right now looking for the pictures from that time we went to Spain, six years ago.” His mother puts the pan on the stove and turns it on, before turning to Lando. “I digitalised them all last year, why are you looking for them?” Lando nods and realises the pictures probably aren’t there, because then his mother would have asked about it when she saw them.

“Just looking for a certain picture.” Then he walks out of the kitchen, with his mother shouting “we’re eating in fifteen minutes” after him. While walking up the stairs, he comes up with another place the pictures can be.

When he was fourteen, he made a ‘my gay stuff’-box, because he wanted to keep his ‘gay stuff’ without his parents noticing it. Back then, he wasn’t out yet, so having that box in his room was really dangerous, he thought. So, he hid it in the attic, but he’s not really sure anymore where in the attic he put it, but he can try.

He storms up the stairs to the attic, what causes his sister to come out of her room. “Hey, elephant, you could be a little bit more silent, you know?” Lando snorts. “As if you’re always silent.” Flo rolls her eyes.

“What is the reason you came here, thumping up the stairs?” Lando shrugs. “Looking for something.” Flo rolls her eyes and turns around to go back into her room. “You do you, I guess, but don’t demolish the whole attic.” Lando rolls with his eyes, a habit all of his siblings have, and opens the door to the storage part of the attic.

Soon, he sees a black box completely at the back of the attic and knows that’s it. It’s a surprise his parents never found it, because it’s completely in sight. He opens the box and sees the pictures straightaway, they are laying on top of all the other stuff. He looks at Carlos and immediately is sure. This is Carlos Sainz Jr. Should he confront Carlos with it?

They both are smiling widely at the picture, even though Lando knows he was nervous, just having realised he had a crush on Carlos. He decides to put the pictures in his suitcase, so he maybe can confront and ask him about it at the Belgian Grand Prix, probably the next time they will see each other.

It's the Friday before race day in Belgium already when Lando sees the picture again. Of course, he’d put it in his suitcase the week before, but it’s only on Friday that the photo reappears from under the pile of clothes in his suitcase. He looks at it and frowns. Would it be a good idea to take it with him to the track? In a split-second, he makes the decision to put it in his bag.

Why did he only remember it now? He doesn’t have any time he can approach Carlos in left, with three fully packed days ahead and today might even be the worst. The only option he has is approaching him after his own qualifying, with the risk Carlos might have left already. During the rest of the day, either one of them is driving and sometimes even both like during FP1.

He sighs, opens his bag and throws everything out, so he can put it all the way at the bottom. No unwanted questions. Then he quickly closes his bag and suitcase, puts his suitcase back on the place it belongs, swings the bag on his back and leaves his hotel room.

The moment his boss dismisses the debrief session, he stands up and nearly sprints out of the room. If he’s fast enough, Carlos still might be at the Renault garage. Maybe it’s a little weird, him running through the paddock, but he doesn’t really care right now.

Just before he’s able to look into the Renault garage, he bumps into Carlos’ teammate, the German looking at him, confused. “Nico!” Lando nearly shouts, wow, he really is out of breath. Did he run that fast? “Lando, wasn’t it?” the older asks and Lando nods. “Is Carlos still in the garage?” Nico tilts his head before looking back to the garage, even though he can’t look into it.

“I don’t know? He was packing his things when I left a few minutes ago, so if you’re lucky, he’s still there.” Lando nods and sprints off to the garage, after mouthing a quick “thank you” to Nico. When he finally arrives at the garage, Carlos is just walking out of it.

“Carlos!” The Spaniard turns around immediately and looks right into Lando’s face. “Lando! What are you doing here? I thought you’d be debriefing right now. Where did you qualify?” Lando smiles. “Debrief ended already. I qualified P5, what about you?” Lando internally facepalms. Their qualifying is only tomorrow, the question doesn’t make any sense. Why is he being this stupid? Luckily, Carlos just laughs it off.

“Our qualifying is tomorrow, remember?” Lando nods. “I wanted to talk to you for a second.” Carlos nods and looks around. “Here?” Lando scans the area around them and concludes no one is still there, so he shrugs. “Doesn’t really matter, no one’s here. Erm, how do I start…” He decided to take his bag off his back to look for the picture and starts with some sort of introduction.

“Do you still remember your summer holiday from when you were 17?” he asks. If Carlos remembers, he will immediately know what he’s talking about. “Yes, I think I do? What are you talking about?” Lando triumphantly pulls the picture out of his bag.

“Remember this?” He shows Carlos the picture and tries to study the look on Carlos’ face. At first he’s… confused? But after a few seconds, his faces changes to a more surprising look. “That’s… us?” Lando smiles and nods. “That’s us”, he confirms.

“I didn’t know you still had this picture”, Carlos says. Lando shrugs. “I don’t think I’ve ever thrown away a picture.” Carlos nods. “I can’t really comprehend we met again”, Carlos says, trying to explain why he doesn’t really say much. “I couldn’t really either, when I realised it”, Lando confesses.

“We thought we would never see each other again. It’s crazy, isn’t it?” Carlos nods. “I’m glad we met again.” Then his grin becomes even wider. That’s when the realisation dawns in on Lando. He has a crush on Carlos. Again. And he’s totally, royally fucked. Again.

**DECEMBER 2018**

**the gay f2 kingdom**

**the king, the ruler:** guys are you free this afternoon/this evening/tomorrow?

 **that one peasant™:** i am, why?

yeah, i am too **: the smol vice-king**

 **the king, the ruler:** i though it was a nice idea if you came over to mine and that we have some formula 1 gays bonding time before the chaos starts and we don’t have any time left

no way we are the only gays on the grid **: the smol vice-king**

 **the king, the ruler:** some formula 1 rookies bonding time then

 **that one peasant™:** so antonio doesnt exist?  
**that one peasant™:** australia might not be his first race, but it’s still his rookie season

 **the king, the ruler:** okay fine  
**the king, the ruler:** some formula 1 gay rookies bonding time

 **that one peasant™:** but i’m not gay

 **the king, the ruler:** alexander albon can your pansexual ass PLEASE shut up about it for once

 **that one peasant™:** what about no

 **the king, the ruler:** fine  
**the king, the ruler:** formula 1 mlm rookies bonding time  
**the king, the ruler:** there you go

who says antonio isn’t mlm? **: the smol vice-king**

 **the king, the ruler:** THAT’S IT I’M DONE WITH YOU GUYS  
**the king, the ruler:** *googles how to get your peasants to listen to you*

Lando smiles when he rereads the conversation between George, Alex and him. It’s nice to have some guys that know your sexuality and you can make gay jokes with. He opens the door of his (still French) car and gets into it. After Alex had come out as pansexual and George as gay last year, Lando decided to tell them about his own sexuality. They immediately took him under their wings, both having more experience with coming out and the whole gay thing.

Now, they all got into Formula 1 at the same time and Lando hopes the rivalry won’t destroy their bond. He’s excited to spend time with the two again; he hasn’t seen them since the final race in Abu Dhabi (where George took his F2 championship, which he loves to brag about to the other two that finished second and third) and probably won’t see them until winter testing in Barcelona, with Christmas and a lot of factory and simulator work ahead.

His house isn’t far from George’s and he’s happy when he pulls into the parking lot 20 minutes later. He loves driving, don’t get him wrong, but it’s simply different than in a racing car. George greets him happily when he opens the door and tells him to come in. “Alex will be here in a few minutes.” Lando nods, hangs up his jacket and throws his bag on the floor next to the door.

They decided to have an old-school sleepover so he probably won’t get a lot of sleep, but that’s okay: it’s winter break. He walks into the living room and lets himself fall down on the couch. George’s couch is quite soft, at least softer than his own. Why he doesn’t buy a new one? He doesn’t know either.

George walks into the living room as well, Alex following him closely. After the two older boys also settled themselves on the couch, George takes the remote and looks something up. “I thought we could watch ‘Love, Simon’? My cousin said it’s a good movie”, George explains. Alex looks at him, surprised.

“That’s it? That’s the only reason you want to watch it?” George’s cheeks redden. “Well, it’s also gay… but my cousin said it’s a good movie!” Alex laughs and pats George on his back. “Of course it’s gay, why would mister George Russell want to watch it with us otherwise? But sure, my sister read the books and recommended them to me, so they’re probably good.” George nods and presses play.

Loud cheers erupt from the boys when the main character finally kisses his crush. “This really was a good movie”, Alex concludes. “I know, right? They were really cute”, George says, Alex adding: “Especially Simon. Or the guy who plays Simon, I don’t know what his name is. He’s cute, right Lando?” Lando shrugs.

“He’s not really my type, but he is kind of cute indeed.” George turns off the TV while Alex changes his position, so he’s facing Lando. “He isn’t really your type? Well, what is your type then?” “I’m curious too”, George adds, trying to persuade Lando into telling them.

“Well, I like boys that are older than me”, he starts, but immediately gets interrupted by Alex. “This is a movie, the actor is probably older than you, muppet.” Lando rolls with his eyes and continues. “Tanned skin, dark hair, taller than me” – “as if that’s difficult”, George teases. Lando hits him on his arm. “Shut up, let me talk. Erm, where was I? Strong, muscular, broad, you get it?” George nods and Alex laughs.

“So basically a macho or a bodybuilder.” Lando quickly shakes his head, frowning. “Not that muscular! But just like… George or something, but a little more.” Alex moves his face closer to Lando. “Is that your way of saying you like George?” he teases. Lando rolls with his eyes again.

“Did you listen? Does George fit that description?” George shakes his head. “I’m not tanned, far from. But Alex is”, he says, eyeing Alex. “He isn’t muscular”, Lando denies. Alex pins him down on the couch and shakes his shoulders. “I’m not muscular? What have I been doing in the gym then if I haven’t gotten muscular?”

“I don’t like any of you, calm down”, Lando exclaims, finding it difficult to talk when Alex is shaking him. “We know, we know. We’re just teasing”, George laughs and pulls Alex back up.

“Have you already got to know your teammates?” Lando asks, quickly changing the subject. Alex nods and George immediately starts talking. “Yeah! Robert is a legend, he knows so much about the car and really helped me getting to know everything.” Lando frowns.

“How does your teammate know that much? He wasn’t a driver in Formula 1 last year and the year before neither.” George’s mouth falls open. “You’re saying you don’t know Robert Kubica?” Lando shakes his head.

“Am I supposed to know him then?” George’s eyes widen. “You’re serious right now? Robert raced in Formula 1 between 2006 and 2010 and even got a race win, before he got into a rally accident.” Lando nods.

“You don’t remember I never watched Formula 1 when I was younger, do you? MotoGP was the shit.” George rolls his eyes and Alex starts talking about his teammate.

“Daniil is… I don’t know. He has driven for Red Bull Racing before, so he must be any good, but I still don’t know. He got of course dropped in 2017”- “and Max got his place! I remember that!” Lando exclaims proudly. Alex snickers.

“Breaking news: Lando knows something about Formula 1! But no, I wasn’t talking about that. I was talking about when he got dropped from Toro Rosso in 2017.” Lando sighs.

“But what about your teammate, mate? You got to know him too, right?” Lando nods. “Carlos is really nice and caring, he really has that kind of protective older brother vibes. He doesn’t judge me, even though I haven’t told him I am gay yet, but I don’t think he’ll mind since he also didn’t mind me listening to One Direction…” without noticing, he starts rambling about their meeting six years ago as well.

“Lando, you really sound like you have a crush on him”, George laughs. Alex’ eyes widen and Lando knows some things clicked in his mind. “Carlos fits your type”, he says slowly. “Lando, you really have a crush on him, don’t you?” Lando can feel his cheeks burn and knows there’s no way he can hide it.

“Let me be, he was my gay awakening!” Silence. Complete, utter silence. Lando frowns. Did he say something wrong? But Alex and George are also frowning. Then Alex breaks the silence.

“How the hell was Carlos your gay awakening when you only met him this August?” Lando lets out a deep sigh, realising he’d hold his breath.

“Well… that’s an interesting story. When I was 12, I was on holiday in Spain, I met Carlos. Got a crush on him, realised that in the most awkward way possible and that’s it, basically.” George nods. “The most awkward way possible?” Alex asks, nearly giggling. “As in…?” Lando smiles and nods.

“The thing that has to do with sexual attraction and your dick, yeah. After a dream, not when I was with him!” he adds when he sees the others’ confused and surprised looks. “Does he- does he know about this?” Lando shakes his head and frowns.

“Well, he knows about us meeting back then, because I showed him the picture we took, but he of course doesn’t know about him being my gay awakening.” “Picture?” Lando tries to remember whether he has the picture on his phone, but he’s quite sure he doesn’t.

“We took two photos together the day before I left, so I still could crush on him for a while and I showed him one.” The two elders nod.

“So you’ve got a crush on him? Again? Or still?” George asks. “Again, I think. I showed him the picture when we were in Spa and then realised: “shit, I have a crush on him again”.”

“Are you going to act on it?” Lando quickly shakes his head. “He doesn’t like me and I have to focus on Formula 1. No room for a relationship.” Alex rolls his eyes.

“Don’t be so pessimistic! Go for it! No one said he doesn’t like you, so you don’t know!” Lando snickers at Alex’ positivity. “Again, I have to focus on Formula 1.” Alex sighs deeply. “Okay, mister boring, your choice.”

**FEBRUARY 2019**

The next time he sees Alex and George (and Carlos) again, is winter testing. Even on their way to Barcelona, the two elders had been teasing him, when George wasn’t busy moping around. Lando and Alex tried to cheer him up, but they didn’t really succeed. It’s understandable, of course, and Lando doesn’t really get why George has to be there either, when the team doesn’t even have a car ready. “PR”, Alex tried to explain, but George still wasn’t satisfied with that answer.

“We don’t have much PR to do and there’s also the second test. Now I only will get annoyed by everyone else being able to drive their car.” Lando could only nod. They promised George to hang out with him as much as possible, so he would be entertained.

Now, the three are on their way to the track. Lando hopes he will be allowed to drive the car today, even if it’s only one session, but he knows they will give priority to Carlos, having more experience. He probably has to wait until tomorrow. He is pretty sure Alex won’t be allowed to drive as well, since he also has a more experienced teammate. At least George has them both today.

His suspicions about the McLaren get confirmed when he sees one of the team members. “Lando! I didn’t expect you to be here this early, since you don’t have to drive today.” Lando shrugs. “No one told me it wasn’t my turn today.” He feels an arm around his shoulders and notices Alex has thrown his arm around him.

“Poor Lando, can’t drive today”, he teases. “Shut it, I assume you can’t either.” Alex snickers. “True. Looks like we’re all in the same boat today.” They arrived at the garages, so they say goodbye to each other and part ways. He’s surprised by the low amount of people in their garage. Turns out he was really early, but fortunately not earlier than Carlos.

He sits down at the same table as where the Spaniard is drinking his coffee and gives him a high-five. “Want some coffee too?” Lando shakes his head. “I don’t like coffee, I prefer milk or hot chocolate.” Carlos nods and stands up. “Hot chocolate it is, then?” Lando nods before realising what Carlos is going to do and splutters.

“Hey, I can get my own hot chocolate!” Carlos shrugs. “I’m already on my way.” Lando rolls his eyes. A few minutes later, Carlos comes back with a huge mug, filled with hot chocolate. “It’s cold, you have to stay warm.” Lando nods and starts blowing on his drink to make it cool down.

Then he takes the risk and takes a sip, but immediately backs off when he feels the heat. The small amount of liquid in his mouth nearly burns his whole palate and he quickly swallows it. The heat travels through his throat and oesophagus and he’s pretty sure he’ll still feel it tomorrow. “Are you okay?” Carlos asks, having noticed the struggles Lando is having with his drink. Lando nods.

“Yeah, just drank it too early. It’s still hot.” Carlos nods and stands up. “I’ll get you some water”, he says and disappears again. At this point, Lando doesn’t even resist anymore, he’s only happy Carlos is willing to help him.

The elder puts the glass water on the table right in front of Lando and the younger downs it immediately, hoping it reduces the burning feeling. He swallows a few times in a row and then smiles at Carlos. “Thank you.” Carlos smiles back. “It’s nothing.”

Carlos and he are examining some of Carlos’ laps in the morning session when Lando’s fellow rookies show up in their garage. “Hey Lando! Hello, Carlos, right?” Carlos nods. “You must be Alexander and George.” They nod. “We were going to ask you whether we could borrow Lando for a second to hang out.” Carlos shrugs.

“Sure, take him with you guys. It’s okay.” Lando looks up and frowns. They were working on something! “Aren’t we working on something?” Carlos shrugs again. “It’s okay, the second session starts in a couple minutes anyway.” Lando agrees, but still. It is kind of weird that Carlos just allows him to leave.

He stands up and walks to Alex and George, before looking back one last time. “Are you sure it’s okay?” Carlos just waves him off. “Go have fun, I’ll be fine.” He follows Alex and George and realises after some metres he doesn’t even know where they are going. Just when he wants to ask it, the two elders turn towards him.

“He’s so whipped for you!” George exclaims and Alex pats him on his back. “You’re so lucky, mate.” Lando frowns. “Who? Carlos? Whipped? No way, he’s just being nice, like teammates do. As he said: the second session starts in a couple minutes anyway.” Alex shakes his head.

“No! You didn’t realise he only checked the time after you said you were working on something, to come up with a good excuse.” “No, he’s just nice. Allowing your teammate to have fun with his friends doesn’t immediately mean you’re whipped.” Alex rolls his eyes.

“Prove it.” His voice sounds stern, but Lando is able to discover a bit of a laugh in it. “How?” George is curious too, how Alex wants Lando to prove it. “Ask him to get you something to drink. If he does it, he’s whipped.” Lando sighs.

“No, he already got me hot chocolate this morning, I can’t just ask him again.” Alex turns his head to George and makes eye contact with him, as if he is trying to ask George whether he thinks the same as Alex does himself. Spoiler: he does. “Then you’ve got nothing to worry about. If he’s being nice, he’ll gently decline it. But if he’s whipped, which he most likely is…” Lando sighs deeper. He knows Carlos will most likely do it for him, but does that really mean he is whipped?

“Okay, I’ll do it. But only if you two shut your mouth afterwards.” He walks back to the garage, where Carlos still sits at the same table. “Back already?” he asks. Lando shakes his head. “Could you get me something to drink?” Before he even blinked twice, Carlos already was on his way to the refrigerator.

“What do you want?” Lando blinks a few times, fazed by the speed. “Coke is fine.” “Catch it.” Before he knows it, a can is already flying his way. His reaction is just fast enough to catch it and he is actually surprised by his own catching skills. “Thanks”, he says. Then he turns around and walks back to Alex and George, who are grinning widely.

“He is so whipped for you”, Alex concludes. “He was already on his way when you finished you sentence!” “Yeah, he was pretty fast”, Lando has to admit. “But that doesn’t mean he’s whipped!” George snorts. “Well, dear Lando, actually, it does. He is so incredibly whipped for you."

**APRIL 2019**

In the end, Alex and George did convince him, because yeah, even Lando has to admit: Carlos really does everything for him. He can ask him anything and the elder will do it for him. Lando tries to not misuse it, but who wouldn’t ask someone else to do something for you when you know the answer will be yes? He just hopes this is a sign Carlos likes him back and not just a sign of just Carlos being whipped. Those two frequently go together, but he’s not entirely sure that is also the case now.

They’re in Azerbaijan right now; he has heard Daniel’s “well done Baku”’s more than enough already and the third practice session is yet to start. Lando is kind of uneasy; not just because this is the first time driving at a street circuit in Formula 1, but also because he promised himself (and Alex and George to make sure he will keep the promise. Lando can’t imagine how much they will tease him if he won’t keep it) to confess before the weekend ends.

But of course, knowing him, he will procrastinate on it until the race is over and if any of them are in a bad mood, there’s no way he’ll do it then. That motivates him a bit to do it earlier, but he also doesn’t want to take Carlos’ attention off the weekend and if Carlos doesn’t like him back, that probably will take up a lot of his thoughts and thus distract him from what this weekend is all about: racing.

After the third practice session, Lando goes back to his motorhome to prepare himself for qualifying. He absolutely does not want to end up in the wall, that completely would ruin his confidence. He’s just about to get some food when he meets Carlos, also on his way to the restaurant.

“Want to get lunch together?” Lando nods and smiles. They haven’t done that in a while, at least not just the two of them. Every time, either Caco, Rupert or Jon joins them and although he likes them, Lando prefers them not to, at least not today.

They quickly get their food, closely paying attention to their diets, and sit down at a table in the middle of the restaurant, surrounded by a lot of other tables and people. “Wait”, Lando realises, “we forgot to get something to drink.” They must have walked past the refrigerator without seeing it, Lando suspects. But when he turns around, the first thing he sees, is the huge refrigerator. How have they missed that? He wants to walk there to get himself (and Carlos, probably) something to drink, but Carlos immediately catches up.

“You can sit down, Lando, I’ll get it. A diet coke?” Lando rolls with his eyes. Of course Carlos will do it. Did he really expect something else? But he just nods and goes back to their table. He watches Carlos as he gets two cans of diet coke for them. Would now be a good moment to confess?

The longer he thinks about it, the more positive he is about confessing right there and then, but they are in a restaurant and people can easily overhear it and the two of them sitting together at a table might raise suspicions and… Lando quickly shakes his head. This way he’ll always find a reason not to do it and he’ll never confess and as much as he is scared, he still wants to do it to get it over with and maybe move on if Carlos doesn’t like him back.

Carlos places Lando’s can in front of him and Lando takes a deep breath. Okay. He is going to do it. “Thank you”, he starts, while opening the can. Carlos shoots him a smile and Lando’s heart melts. “No problem.” He takes a small sip of his drink to make sure his throat is less dry and then tries to get on with it, but how much he tries, it just doesn’t get further than his throat. His mouth won’t open and Lando decided to let it rest for a few minutes.

They eat in silence, both focused on mentally preparing for qualifying. When he finishes his drink, Carlos (of course) offers his own, but Lando waves it off. “It’s fine, I’ll get a new one”, he states while standing up, but Carlos shrugs and nearly forces his own can into Lando’s hand.

“I’m not very thirsty”, he explains and Lando sighs. He’s pretty sure Carlos would like to have the drink, but protesting doesn’t really help. As he is putting the can back on the table, he decides now is the right moment. They are both in a good mood and Carlos showed even more that he’s whipped, so it can’t go wrong, right? Without thinking any more, he just blurts it out.

“I like you.” He doesn’t dare looking up, scared of Carlos’ reaction. Does that make it unpersonal? Carlos will understand, right? “I really like you too, Lando. You’re a good teammate”, Carlos says and Lando’s head shoots up. This was absolutely not what he meant. But since he probably would’ve picked it up the right way if he liked him back, Lando can now assume: Carlos does not like him.

He tries not to panic as they finish their lunch and checks whether he still has enough time to visit George or Alex to let it out for a bit. Qualifying doesn’t start for another two hours, so he rapidly makes his way to the Williams motorhomes, assuming both Alex and George are there since they prefer it there, the motorhomes being all the way at the back. He luckily finds them both there.

“What’s wrong, Lando?” Alex immediately asks when he’s in his sight. Alex sometimes really has mother-like senses for both of them and always knows when something is wrong. He takes a deep breath. “I tried confessing to Carlos, so I told him I liked him”, he starts and Alex’ facial expression changes to a frown. “But he thought I meant it platonically.” Both boys’ faces soften.

“Oh no”, George softly exclaims before sending him a smile. “We’re sorry.” Lando shrugs to make it seem like it isn’t a big deal, but George and Alex see right through it. “You are allowed to be sad about this, Lando”, Alex reassures him. “But you didn’t try to tell him you didn’t mean it platonically?” Lando shakes his head.

“That would have made it even more awkward. If he liked me back, he would’ve told me then, he would’ve picked up the hint. The door was right open, you can’t tell me he didn’t realise it. He probably didn’t want to hurt me and tried to shrug it off.” Lando says it with a lot of confidence, but deep inside, he really wants to just go back to his hotel room and cry. Why didn’t he procrastinate on it more?

“Come here”, Alex says while opening his arms. “You need a hug. It’s okay to cry, it’s okay to feel sad about it.” Lando softly smiles, but his eyes are starting to tear. He answers Alex’ hug and also feels George putting his arms around him. He melts into their touch. “I was so convinced he liked me back”, he sobs. Alex presses a kiss onto his forehead. “We’re sorry, Lando”, George apologises. “We shouldn’t have made you promise to confess when you didn’t want to and weren’t confident about it.”

“Don’t be sorry”, Lando manages to choke out. He sniffs. “I was convinced he liked me back and wanted to do it as well. The only thing you did was not letting me procrastinate it.” Alex keeps rubbing Lando’s back and George also presses a kiss onto Lando’s forehead.

“You’re strong, you’ll get through it”, George says when they pull out of their hug. “Kick his ass in qualifying”, Alex laughs. “Show him what he misses.” Lando smiles because of his friends’ remarks. “I’ll try.” “No, you’ll do it!” Alex tries to encourage him.

“Okay, I’ll do it”, Lando smiles, knowing Alex won’t give up until he says that. “That’s the spirit! Now go and get your ass in the car.” He takes his phone out of his pocket, his eyes widening when he sees the time. “I’ve got to go!” he shouts, running off to the McLaren garage, leaving Alex and George laughing behind. “He’ll get over him”, George says and Alex nods agreeingly. “I’m sure of that. He’s strong, way stronger than he thinks.”

**MAY 2019**

Alex and George were right. Lando got over Carlos quite fast, maybe even faster than they had expected. The younger was happy and could casually talk about and with Carlos. At least so it seemed. In reality, Lando was absolutely not over Carlos. The mask he put on was from a happier, freer Lando, that didn’t have to worry about crushes or love, only about racing. He really tried, but every time he thought about racing and the team, his mind automatically went to Carlos and seeing him nearly every day didn’t help either.

Lando likes Spain, he really does. He’s got nice memories made in the country, it’s where Alex, George and he got their first (and only) shared podium in Formula 2 and he always enjoyed going on holidays there, but right now, he wholeheartedly despises Spain. Everything just reminds him of Carlos. The soft but hard sounds of the language remind him of his typical accent and everything just seems to smell exactly like Carlos.

Lando sighs and looks up, right into Carlos’ face. He really can’t avoid him anywhere, can he? “What’s wrong, Lando?” the older asks and Lando can spot a hint of concern in his voice. “Nothing, just tired”, he smiles and Carlos seems to relax a bit. “Okay, if you say so. Please tell me if there’s something wrong, okay?” Lando nods.

Tell him when there’s something wrong, as if. Of course there’s something wrong, but there’s no way he’ll tell Carlos about this, whatever this is. It isn’t really just a crush anymore, since Lando is finding himself falling more and more for him, but he keeps calling it a crush to make it sound less bad for himself. Having a crush on someone who doesn’t like you is already bad enough, but falling in love with them? Lando can’t remember that ever ending well.

He yawns to convince Carlos he actually is tired and then focuses on the data again. Curse Friday evening, really. Even after six days of winter testing and way more days of analysing the data, they still think it’s necessary for them to analyse the data of the two practice sessions earlier today. All those numbers dizzy him and he’s two seconds away of telling the team he’s got a headache just to go back to the hotel. But again, that will cause Carlos to worry even more and he’ll probably want to accompany him to the hotel and that is the last thing he wants right now.

Luckily, his prayers have been heard and not even ten minutes later, the team calls it quits for the evening and they are free to go. He quickly packs his back and is on his way to the gates when Carlos approaches him. “Where are you going?” Lando shrugs. “The hotel, probably.”

“And dinner?” Really? Is he now going to interfere in what he’s going to eat for dinner? “I am going to order room service, don’t worry, I will eat dinner.” Lando wants to walk away, but Carlos grabs his arm.

“Do you want to have dinner with me? I know this amazing restaurant in the city, you will love it!” Lando sighs. It’s not like he can say no to this, because he knows Carlos won’t stop trying until he gives in.

“Fine. But we won’t stay out too long, right? I genuinely am tired.” Carlos nods and beams. “Of course not, we still have qualifying tomorrow, don’t we?” Lando follows him to his car, but then realises that if he goes with Carlos now, he won’t have a car tomorrow morning and thus no way to get at the track.

“Maybe I should drive myself”, he suggests. “Otherwise my car will still be here tomorrow when I need it at the hotel.” Carlos shakes his head and pulls his hand. “You can drive with me tomorrow morning, no problem. And it ruins the surprise if you drive yourself”, Carlos reasons. Lando shrugs and opens the door at the passenger’s side of the car.

“Don’t kill me”, he jokes while getting in. “I would never”, Carlos answers in a serious tone. “I was joking.” No reaction. He looks up, but Carlos is just trying to start the car. “I was joking”, he repeats. “I heard you, Lando, but I would never kill you.” Lando chuckles. “I know, don’t worry.”

Two hours and lots of food later, they decide to call it a night and to head back to the hotel. Lando grins. Carlos was right. He loved the food, and the restaurant itself as well. Overall, it was very nice, but Lando assumes that had more to do with Carlos than with the restaurant.

While they are waiting for the bill, Lando already gets his wallet from his jacket, wanting to pay his part of the bill. But Carlos is just frowning at him. “What are you doing?” “Getting my wallet to pay?” Carlos smiles and takes his wallet out of his hands before opening the pocket of his jacket and putting it back. “I’m paying.” Lando shakes his head.

“I can easily pay for myself, Carlos.” Carlos shrugs and immediately takes the bill when the waiter places it on their table. “That’s not what it’s about, Lando. I know you can easily pay yourself, but I took you here so it’s just polite that I pay for you as well. Can I pay by card, please?” Lando sighs.

“Yeah, I understand, but it just feels weird. I ate just as much, maybe even more than you, so it is only logical I pay for myself.” Carlos stays silent, seemingly not knowing what to say to that, but when the waiter gives him the pin device, he just simply smiles at Lando while keying in his pin code.

“Too late”, he chuckles while giving the pin device back to the waiter. “What?” Lando asks, confused. “I already paid, so you’re too late.” Lando sighs and closes his eyes for a second. “Fine. But next time I’ll pay.” Lando immediately regrets saying that, implying he definitely wants to repeat this another time. Unfortunately, Carlos understood that as well.

“So you want there to be another time?” Lando nods gently. “I think we can arrange that, can’t we?” Carlos asks, teasing. Lando chuckles. “No, I don’t think I want to see you again after this. Ew, I have to see your face tomorrow again. And the day after. Why did I agree on being your teammate?” Carlos chuckles as well. “I don’t know, ask yourself I’d say.” Lando rolls his eyes and takes Carlos hand, pulling him in the direction of the exit. “Let’s go, I’m tired.”

The ride back to the hotel is short and Lando is just enjoying the city for a moment, not really having the energy to talk to Carlos. “At which floor is your room?” The sudden sound of Carlos’ voice startles him and he has to recover for a second before answering. “The same as yours, of course. I think you meant to ask what my room number is?” Carlos grins.

“You got me. Well, what is your room number?” “356.” Carlos nods and shifts his attention onto not driving the car into the wall while parking it. “You don’t have to accompany me to my room, you know that, right?” “But I want to.” Of course he wants to. Lando would be genuinely surprised if Carlos doesn’t want to bring him everywhere for once. They leave the car and take the lift to their floor.

“Which room is yours, by the way?” Lando asks while he is guiding Carlos to his room. “358.” “Then I don’t have to guide you to mine! Why didn’t you say anything?” Carlos shrugs. “I wanted you to lead me there. But I thought you knew and therefore didn’t think it was necessary to tell you.” Lando nods and starts digging in his backpack, trying to find the key card.

“You don’t know where your key card is?” Lando sighs. “It’s somewhere in my bag, I know that. I didn’t have much time this morning so I just threw it into the main compartment.” He gives up trying to find it and turns his backpack upside down, so everything falls out of it. Carlos tuts. “You really are a mess.”

“I am not! I just was in a hurry this morning!” He finally sees his key card and grabs it, opening the door. He quickly shoves everything inside so he can close the door, startling Carlos in the process.

“You also could’ve just put everything in your bag first and then get it inside in one go.” Lando shrugs. “This works fine, doesn’t it?” Carlos chuckles at Lando’s stubbornness. They stay silent for a few seconds, staring at each other and smiling.

“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow then”, Lando whisper-speaks, smiling fondly. He wants to close the door, but Carlos stops him. The tension-filled air stays silent, but Lando knows he wants to say something. He’s about to ask him about it when Carlos breaks the silence.

“I like you”, Carlos mumbles, just loud enough for him to hear. “What?” Lando blurts out instinctively. Did he hear that right? Carlos likes him? The realisation still has to dawn on him, but he can see Carlos slowly turning around and trying to leave.

“Come again?” he asks, wanting to have his thoughts confirmed. “It’s nothing.” Lando frowns. “It’s not nothing, Carlos. You clearly were very nervous about this. But you said you liked me, right?” Carlos sighs.

“Yeah, that’s what I said. Now I’ll go, before this will get awkward.” Lando smiles, still trying to process that Carlos actually likes him. “You mean… you like like me?” Carlos sighs and looks around for a moment, trying to avoid the answer.

“Yes, I like like you. How much confirmation do you want?” Lando’s smile widens and he feels like this is the happiest he’s ever been. He pulls Carlos inside his hotel room for some privacy before looking him straight in the eyes.

“I like you too”, he says softly. Now it’s Carlos that has to process it, but after a few moments, his smile increases as well. “You do?” Lando nods. “I do.”

He stares deeply into Carlos’ eyes before pressing his lips onto the other’s. Even though he started the kiss himself, his heart still skips a beat when their lips touch and a wave of satisfaction goes through his body when he realises Carlos is actually kissing back. Carlos’ lips are soft but rough, going hand in hand with the typical accent Lando fell in love with and he finds himself falling even harder. He pulls back and continues staring into Carlos’ eyes, still not done discovering every little detail his iris exists of.

“Woah”, Carlos lets out softly. “You really like me.” Lando nods, chuckling gently. “Why wouldn’t I?” Carlos shrugs. “You’re you and I’m… just me.” Lando presses his finger against Carlos’ lips to shut him up. “Yeah, you’re you. That’s what made me like you.” He presses a short kiss against Carlos’ lips.

“Eager, huh?” he laughs when Carlos whines, wanting more. “Shut it”, he snickers before pulling him in for another kiss.

“I think I should go”, Carlos concludes a bit later. “Why?” Lando whines. “Maybe because it’s late and we have qualifying tomorrow? And weren’t you tired?” “Not anymore”, Lando pouts. He obviously is tired, but he doesn’t want Carlos to leave yet. “You definitely are tired. Good night, Lando”, he says, walking to the door.

“Wait!” Lando follows him and opens the door for him. “A real gentleman, I’ve got myself”, Carlos laughs. Lando nods. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Carlos”, he softly says him goodbye. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Good night and sleep well.”

“Taxi’s here!” Carlos shouts, standing at the other side of the door and Lando chuckles before opening the door. Even though he has to now because his car is still at the track, he’s pretty sure that if his car was at the hotel, he still would have driven with Carlos after what happened last night.

“Good morning”, he says enthusiastically while opening the door. “You look good”, he adds after a quick look. “You do too”, Carlos compliments him. He presses a small kiss on the younger’s lips. “Are you ready to go?” Lando nods.

“Wait, my key card.” He quickly makes his way to his nightstand, Carlos cracking up. He throws the card into his backpack and swings it on his back, receiving a deadly glare from Carlos. “What?”

“Do you really want a repeat of last night?” Lando knows he means the turning-his-backpack-upside-down-incident, but decides to go with the whole night. “Well, I would like that. Nice dinner, some nice kisses, a nice boyfriend…” Without noticing, he slipped up, calling Carlos his boyfriend.

“A boyfriend? And who might that be, if I may ask?” Lando stays frozen in place. “I’m just kidding. I know we haven’t made it official, but I’d love to be your boyfriend.” Lando lets out a soft sigh before swinging his arms around his now boyfriend. Carlos presses a kiss on his curls.

“Let’s go, then. Maybe you can use the time in the car to move your key card to the small compartment?” Lando chuckles and admits that, indeed, maybe that is a clever idea. In contrary to last night, the ride to the track is much less silent.

“We truly are idiots”, Carlos laughs after they have shared some stories about how obvious it was the other liked them. “Well, I must admit, I was pretty sure you liked me”, Lando negotiates. “But then you were an idiot and sort of rejected me.”

“What?” Lando sighs. “You still don’t understand it, do you? Remember in Baku, when we had lunch together on Saturday?” Carlos nods, but still doesn’t seem to get it. “I literally said I liked you then. But of course, you thought I meant it platonically, like the idiot you are.” Carlos’ eyes widen and Lando guesses he finally understood it.

“Are you legit?” Lando sighs, but then starts laughing. “Yes. Ask Alex and George, they have dealt with my complains afterwards.” “They knew?” Lando just stares at him.

“I guess they do. But I think I was too caught up in my own feelings and thinking you would never like me back, that I decided to just act cool and friendzone you, for my own safety”, Carlos explains. He pulls into the parking lot. Right when he stops the car, Alex and George appear from behind the McLaren truck standing next to Carlos’ parking spot. Carlos frowns.

“Did you message them?” Lando shakes his head and opens the passenger door. “Hey you! Did you finally manage to get your shit together?” George shouts. The two come closer. “You’re lucky we did. If we didn’t, you had fully blown my cover and then I would have actually killed you.” Carlos gets out of the car as well and stands protectively behind him.

“But yeah, I am lucky enough to call this man my boyfriend from now on. How did you know, by the way?” Alex points at Lando’s car standing a few meters away from them. “You’ve never driven with Carlos, you always were scared you would slip up, weren’t you? So, we figured you two got your shit together when we saw your car standing here this morning and you weren’t here yet.” Lando nods. He must admit, that sounds quite plausible. Except for that if nothing had happened, he still would’ve had to drive with Carlos to the track today.

“We had already decided to do that before getting together, so your argument is declared invalid”, Carlos argues, making Lando and George crack up. “That doesn’t matter”, Alex laughs. “The only thing that matters is that you finally got together. Congratulations, I’d say. Took you long enough, especially from Lando’s side.” Lando gets red.

“Shut up”, he says, knowing exactly what Alex means. “In the end, I did it, didn’t I?” “Well, technically…” Lando rolls his eyes. “But you thought saying ‘I like you’ was something very platonic, so you can’t say shit. I did it.” He pulls Carlos into a kiss, earning some cheers from Alex and George.

“But really, congratulations. I’m really happy for you, you know that, right?” Alex says, trying to make up for his earlier remarks. “Thanks, Alex, and yeah, I know that.” Alex grins. “Good. Good luck today, Lando. And you too, Carlos, of course.” The couple smiles, thanking him, before excusing themselves and walking away, holding hands. “They truly are cute”, George sighs. Alex nods. “I’m glad they found each other.”

**Author's Note:**

> i really hope you enjoyed reading <3
> 
> come scream at me on my tumblr: [myrsterious](https://myrsterious.tumblr.com/) :)


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